Hand held router suggestions

[Harry Cleary]

In my humble opinion, for service, quality and value, you have three choices; Dewalt, Dewalt or……Dewalt!
Have tried many others and they come out tops.

[Dave & Rob Lowery]

hear, hear! Dewalt is the daddy 😛

[Colin Aburrow]

Thanks Harry & Dave

I am still not sure which make to go for are you saying DeWalt then. 😀
I suppose they are the £19.99 ones then. But seriously I have noticed that some have variable speed & soft start are these functions worth the extra cost?

Thanks

Colin

[Alistair Richards]

I disagree, when buying my router I tried out a few. I think the DeWalt Routers are clumsy to hold and not as good to operate. Maybe if you’re just using it for a router table it would be fine. I’ve got the Makita 3612, 1650W router, £229 in screwfix, and it feels great in your hands, the operation is good and it’s got soft start and brake etc.

Ali (chat.) :lol1:

[Colin Aburrow]

Thanks Ali

Just what I was looking for a debate. (chat.) I know a lot of people always seem to say Dewalt are the best but I use a Makita drill and love it. Not sure this is helping apart from the £19.99 ones being out. So I assume that the variable speed and soft start are a good option.

Colin

[Dave Bruce]

Festool rules, but you pay top dollar.

Dave

[Steve Morgan]

I’ve been using a small 1/4" collet Dewalt router for over 20 years, 2 sets of bearings, brushes and one or two other bits replaced in that time, and spares are still easy to get. What more can I say.

[David Rogers]

I’d always been a fan of ‘ELU’ (bought out by another big company), but at a couple of hundred without any attachments it can be a bit of an investment.

For a good product @ a fair price the B&Q ‘pro’ range is pretty good.

I’ve got an 18v hammer drill – at over £80 it wasn’t cheap, but performs nearly as well as a cheap Hilti and waaaaay better than the Hitachi / Bosch stuff the blinds fitters use.

Have a look anyway!!

Dave

[Alistair Richards]

If we’re gonna start talking cordless drills, then it’s got to be a Milwaulkee, I use mine everyday on the building site, and it’s so robust and powerful, excellent chuck etc etc. :lol1: :lol1:

Ali

[Peter Normington]

quote David Rogers:

I’d always been a fan of ‘ELU’ (bought out by another big company), Dave

Would that be the same company that owns De Walt Dave?

I have an old elu router that is still going strong, also about the same age as Steves.
I use De Walt, Had no problems up now,

Peter

[Dave Harrison]

If it were my money I’d go for a Trend Router. T5EK if you want a 1/4 inch. T11EK if you want a 1/2 inch. Get a Fine hieght adjustment knob too. ( sometimes they bundle them in with the router )

[David Rogers]

quote Peter Normington:

Would that be the same company that owns De Walt Dave?

I have an old elu router that is still going strong, also about the same age as Steves.
I use De Walt, Had no problems up now,

Peter

Yeh, sounds right. Those ELU’s are brilliant. One place I worked replaced most of the stock cutter motors on their engraving machines with routers for extra power & greater speed adjustment. Ran all day, every day for umpteen years – just the odd change of motor brushes. No way a £20/30 piece of kit could do that!